UK programme from 1984 on the MSX

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Ed Oscuro
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UK programme from 1984 on the MSX

Post by Ed Oscuro »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-kI0urN9tI

With appearances by Bill Gates, Kazuhiko Nishi (of ASCII Corporation), and Sir Clive actually talking an intriguing mixture of sense and nonsense. Comparing the MSX to a five-year old car design may have been warranted, but not so in claiming the original Speccy was "two to three times" more powerful than the MSX.

Even though neither system was an enduring success (although the MSX much more so than the Sinclair line which was as fragmented as one company could get, whereas the Japanese computer market would later be fragmented but all the companies survived more or less intact), you see how Gates always focused on the utility of machines through software (or maybe somebody else's software) and promoted a standard with compatibility intended going fowards, while Sir Clive was stuck in the unenviable position of making a messy break with most of the Spectrum's back catalogue of software in hopes of capitalizing on the brand potential of a previous product with which the new machine had nothing in common. The MSX manufacturers took a position closer to Microsoft's in looking at things from a design standpoint asking how they could integrate computers into their products already in demand.
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Daigohji
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Post by Daigohji »

Interesting clip. I love seeing these old 80s tech shows. I'd forgotten how entertaining Sir Clive is, and how Peter Molyneux seems to be a clone of his personality.

Did anyone else wince when that guy was hot-plugging cartridges?
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